Friday, May 10, 2013DNA shows Castro fathered a captive woman's childBut further tests show he's not linked by DNA to other crimes in Ohioby WKSU's KEVIN NIEDERMIER

ReporterKevin Niedermier

In The Region:

DNA tests have confirmed that Ariel Castro is the father of a child born to one of the woman he allegedly held captive for a decade in his Cleveland home. The tests were conducted by Ohio' Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Castro' DNA was also tested against evidence from other Ohio murders, rapes and assaults, but there were no matches. His profile was cross-referenced against nearly 550,000 samples in Ohio' section of the national “Combined DNA Index System,” or CODIS.

“Basically, it’s a series of numbers like a bar code for an individual," explained Lewis Maddox, head of the state’s DNA testing lab.

Maddox says it takes only about 10 minutes to the run the statewide test. The FBI will now test Castro’s DNA against the millions of samples in the CODIS system’s national section.

Castro has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. He's accused of holding three women captive for the last decade.The fourth kidnapping charge is tied to the child, who is now 6 years old. Two of the women -- Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus -- were just teenagers when they disappeared. The third, Michelle Knight, was 21.

They escaped Monday night.

Police reports say Castro kept the women locked away, and repeatedly beat and raped them. The reports also say one of the women told police Castro beat and starved her to force her to miscarry. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty says he intends to use that evidence to possibly pursue the death penalty against Castro.